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Despite the fact that women are increasingly reaching the highest levels of management in business organisations, negative stereotypes persist concerning their ability to handle the discourse of leadership. Drawing on a large database of recorded material collected from women in a variety of New Zealand workplaces by the Victoria University of Wellington Language in the Workplace Project, this paper illustrates the value of both qualitative and quantitative analysis in challenging such stereotypes. The analysis indicates that effective women managers adapt their style with sensitivity and skill to the specific setting and refutes misconceptions about the ability of women chairs to handle workplace humour, making them sociolinguistically very proficient communicators in the workplace.

While research on workplace safety spans across disciplines in medicine, public health, engineering, psychology, and business, research to date has not adopted a multilevel theoretical perspective that integrates theoretical issues and findings from various disciplines. In this chapter, we integrate research on workplace safety from a variety of disciplines and fields to develop a multilevel model of the processes that affect individual safety performance and safety and health outcomes. In doing so, we focus on cross-level linkages among national, organizational, and individual-level variables in relation to the exhibition of safe work behavior and occurrence of individual-level accidents, injuries, illnesses, and diseases. Our modeling of workplace safety is intended to fill a theoretical gap in our understanding of how the multitude of individual differences and situational factors interrelate across time to influence individual level safety behaviors and the consequences of these actions, and to encourage research to expand the limits of our knowledge.

Additive manufacturing (AM) of thermoplastic polymers for powder bed fusion processes typically requires each layer to be fused before the next can be deposited. The purpose of this paper is to present a volumetric AM method in the form of deeply penetrating radio frequency (RF) radiation to improve the speed of the process and the mechanical properties of the polymer parts.

The focus of this study was to demonstrate the volumetric fusion of composite mixtures containing polyamide (nylon) 12 and graphite powders using RF radiation as the sole energy source to establish the feasibility of a volumetric AM process for thermoplastic polymers. Impedance spectroscopy was used to measure the dielectric properties of the mixtures as a function of increasing graphite content and identify the percolation limit. The mixtures were then tested in a parallel plate electrode chamber connected to an RF generator to measure the heating effectiveness of different graphite concentrations. During the experiments, the surface temperature of the doped mixtures was monitored.

Nylon 12 mixtures containing between 10% and 60% graphite by weight were created, and the loss tangent reached a maximum of 35%. Selective RF heating was shown through the formation of fused composite parts within the powder beds.

The feasibility of a novel volumetric AM process for thermoplastic polymers was demonstrated in this study, in which RF radiation was used to achieve fusion in graphite-doped nylon powders.

Numerous and diverse organizations have implemented lean principles and practices, which concentrate on improving the efficiency of business processes by reducing cost, waste, consumptions and effort. However, previous assessments have not focused on the leanness of the supply chain in a health-care setting. This paper aims to introduce a method for assessing the successful implementation of lean principles and tools in a supply chain. Furthermore, this paper validates the method in a health-care organization.

This paper starts with an extensive literature review on assessing leanness and using multi-grade fuzzy logic. Then, a conceptual model was developed to measure leanness. The conceptual model was validated by discussing the initial version with select academic experts, especially those who deal with leanness in health-care organizations. After responding to the experts’ valuable comments, the health-care organization that is the focus of this case study was chosen based on two criteria. The first criterion was the organization’s ability to participate in the study, and the second was the organization’s commitment to implementing lean principles. These criteria were important to ensure the organization had the necessary foundation for implementing change initiatives such as lean process improvements. Next, a multi-grade (multi-attributes) fuzzy logic was used for leanness measurement. A leanness index was calculated, and the results were validated using experts from the case study organization. Finally, the weaker areas of the organization’s processes were identified to point the way for further improvements.

The assessment indicated that the case study organization is not lean. The organization’s weaker attributes were identified, and improvements have been suggested.

This study focused on a single health-care organization, which was selected from a limited pool of potential organizations, namely, organizations which are accredited by both the Saudi Central Board for Accreditation of Healthcare Institutions and the Joint Commission International. The scope of future research should be extended to multi-case studies to enhance the findings presented in this paper. This paper’s findings can be used to help decision-makers at health-care providers to implement lean thinking in supply chain processes.

This research may be interest to practicing supply chain managers, as it proposes what enablers, factors and attributes should be emphasized in lean implementation. The proposed model can work as an assessment tool to identify the gap between the present level of leanness and the desired leanness state so the health-care organization can identify what can be improved. This model enables decision-makers in hospital supply chain to take suitable actions for improving lean implementation level.

This study makes an original contribution to the body of research concerning lean principles; the study developed a conceptual model for leanness assessment that can be applied to the supply chain of health-care organizations. Indeed, the conceptual model is likely to be useful for assessing leanness outside of the health-care field, which suggests avenues for future research.

By applying a systematic literature review, this paper aims to identify the major healthcare problem domains (i.e. target areas) for lean supply chain management (LSCM) and to provide a list of the most common techniques for implementing LSCM in healthcare. Moreover, this study intends to investigate various contingency factors that may have influenced the selection of LSCM target areas or the application of LSCM techniques by healthcare organizations.

A systematic literature review was carried out following the method presented by Tranfield et al. (2003). Thereby, 280 peer-reviewed journal articles, published between 1995 and 2018, were selected, profiled and reviewed. In total, 75 papers were also selected for a qualitative analysis, known as meta-study, on the basis of high relevancy to the research objectives.

This work extracts, from previous research, a set of target areas for improving supply chain in healthcare by applying lean approaches. The work also unifies the language of lean thinking and supply chain in healthcare by defining metaphors in circumstances under which healthcare organizations pursue similar objectives from their supply chain management and lean programs (Schmitt, 2005). This paper also outlines a list of applications of lean for supply chain improvement in healthcare. Finally, a set of contingency factors in the field of lean supply chain in healthcare is found via the published literature.

This paper provides insights for decision-makers in the healthcare industry regarding the benefits of implementing LSCM, and it identifies contingency factors affecting the implementation of LSCM principles for healthcare. Implementing LSCM can help healthcare organizations improve the following domains: internal interaction between employees, supply chain cost management, medication distribution systems, patient safety and instrument utilization.

The research shows potential synthesis of LSCM with the healthcare industry’s objectives, and, thus, the outcome of this research is likely to have positive influence on the quality and cost of healthcare services. The objectives of the healthcare industry are cost reduction and providing better service quality, and LSCM implementation could be an effective solution to help healthcare to achieve these objectives.

The prime value of this paper lies in conducting a systematic literature review using a meta-study to identify the major factors of implementing LSCM in healthcare. Only a few other studies have been published in the literature about LSCM in healthcare.